Langhorns Biography

The story of Langhorns begins one supposedly windy day on the plains in the very south of Sweden, in the city of Lund to be precise. Michael Sellers (guitar) and Martin Berglund (bass), both with a long history as musicians and nerdy record collectors decide to start up a band with very limited ambitions; mostly for fun, but with a goal to play gigs at small clubs, pizza places and an occasional 50-year anniversary party... The genre had to be surf rock and that's about as far as their visions went. They met twice to see what would come out of it in the rehearsal space and the results were satisfactory enough to start looking for a drummer. This is where Rikard Swärdh comes in.

Michael Sellers, the creative engine and main songwriter of the Langhorns and drummer Rikard Swärdh both have a history in The Sinners, who together with bands like The Creeps and local rock legends Wilmer X wrote rock'n'roll history in the south of Sweden in the early eighties. The Sinners first started playing back in 1982 and were initially a cover-band focusing on old garage-tunes. All the members were old high school friends and had a collective past in numerous punk and new-wave bands and the group quickly transformed into a very successful rock band with all original material. Some 300 cities were graced with the band's presence during an intense touring period in the later part of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. 

So, in 1995 the Langhorns line-up is complete and for a period of two years they pursue their original goals: they play virtually every town on the local map and build a reputation in underground circuits as a band that will deliver a totally amazing gig, every time. You could, and still can one might add, put them in front of virtually any kind of crowd and they still get people moving! During all this time more and more of their own material starts to find its way into the band's repertoire and it doesn't take long before friends of the band also start chipping in with songs! 

They enter the studio for the first time in 1997 and with the help of producer Magnus Börjesson they manage to record their debut album in little less than three days! Again things don't quite turn out the way the planned it. Their initial goal with this recording was to release the album themselves and sell it at shows and on their web site. This plan drastically changed though when some guys from Bad Taste Records saw the band live and immediately offered to release it. Early 1998 the self-titled debut album was released on Bad Taste, an album consisting of a variety of their own material and covers of classic surf rock tracks.

People all over Sweden now start talking about the band and with the "latino-pimp-twang"-sound of their second album (released in 1999 by Bad Taste Records as well) Club Gabardino, the attention and media coverage reaches far beyond the borders of Sweden. With Club Gabardino they stay away from the covers almost completely with only one cover song (of the legendary Dick Dale). By now Langhorns have stared to tour more extensively and Europe is visited twice in the coming year. In 1998 they played Sweden's biggest musical event, Hultsfredsfestivalen and they also opened up for The Killer himself - Mr Jerry Lee Lewis. Surf rock has always, especially since the huge success of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, been great for film and TV and in Langhorns' case they have been featured with various songs in the American TV-show Sex And The City, the biggest Swedish film production of 1999 (Vuxna Människor) and various children's TV-shows on Nickelodeon.

Mission Exotica is the third album release from Langhorns and it has kept the members occupied (along with two of them becoming parents and other day to day stuff...) since 1999. With this release the original thought of playing covers at small joints has completely been forgotten; all thirteen songs are written by the band or close friends of theirs. Mission Exotica is a fantastic album in many ways; totally blind to the set rules of the surf-rock-genre it combines literally every piece of musical tradition known to man in the concept of surf rock. It is by far one of the most interesting and stimulating albums I've heard in quite some time.

Ulrika Matsson

Bad Taste Records, Box 1243, 221 05 Lund, Sweden Fax: 46 (0)46 - 13 13 21 info@badtasterecords.se http://www.badtasterecords.se